I bought this at a garage sale some time ago. I was wondering where to get ammo for it. Or, maybe, not shoot it at all?

Is it a "Hawkeye" single shot? I think those things are worth a pile of money now.

Jake check some of the auction sites to see what your Hawkeye is worth, it may be enough that you might just want to keep it oiled and put it away for an investment.

Yeah, it's a Hawkeye. Some rust on it when I bought it last summer, but, it cleaned up real nice. Bore was a mess with something sticky and thick. But, again, it cleaned up bright and crisp rifling. It was the proverbial "Old Lady/garage sale of deceased husbund stuff/hates guns/don't want them around" sort of thing. Not being a Ruger fan, I bought it cause it looked "unusual".

From the sounds of things you will not hurt it all by shooting it. Get yourself a form die and a set of FL dies from C-H and have some fun.

Jake: The 256 Win. Mag, is just a 357 magnum, necked down to 25 caliber. It's not terribly difficult to make your own brass from 357s.

I stumbled in to a vendor, who sells a box of 50 loaded rounds, for $60-

http://cpcartridge.com/cart2/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=1_116&products_id=1839&zenid=2444f5b0a777ac9d9b9954e207f3ba07

Darrel

Promise this works:

1. Use NEW .357 brass.
2. Use Imperial Sizing Wax.
3. Don't get fustrated.
4. Remove decapping assembely from a .256 sizing die.
5. Screw die UP in the press so taht it barely sizes the .357 case.
6. Size all your .357's.
7. Redistrubute the lube (rub it around with your fingers), screw the .256 die down 1/2 a turn, and size them all again.
8. Keep doing #6 and #7 untill the die is fully down.
9. Reinsert the decapping rod into the sizing die and size them one more time, just like you would for fired brass.

(Idea of the above it to work only with the very top of the press's ram-stroke, where the leverage is the greatest.)
You will lose the occasional case, but less than 5%. using even once fired cases seeems to double the case loss percentage)

I presonally will fire them all once before bothering to anneal...but I will anneal if they survive the first firing.
--------
Had two friends in Oregon, one who shot a Merrill and one who shot a Hawkey...I shot a Marlin 62 ( a rifle in .256). Both of them have passed away this year, but until then they were still shooting and enjoying their .256's. One of them made a very nice set of dies to bump up .25acp 50gr FMJ into .258" Spitzer SP's (or FMU depending on how you fed them in). Had to bump them up to .260", then swage them back to .258" as we formed the point to keep the core and jacket from loosening, but they shot very well.

I watched Zim (the Merrell shooter) go 5 hits for 5 shots on empty 12ga. shells at 100yards one day...which impressed the devil out of me.

That impresses me too!
The Marlin Model 62 can be a very accurate rifle, but it is a bit hard on brass.
I got tired of the slow forming process of using the seating die and the sizing die. I finally broke down and bought a C-H form die for about $40.00 delivered by priority mail. One pass through the form die and one through the sizer and I am shooting. I formed 50 cases in 15 minutes. Either way you go about it the .256 is worth playing with.
For a good variety of load data Beartooth Forum member Greg Mushial has plenty at
http://www.gmdr.com/
Go to the Oregon Trail – Additional Data page.

Now that Zim has passed, will tell a few tales...besides i miss the old guy.

He once made a complete Colt 45 Slide and frame during his lunch breaks at work (took about a year)...he'd given up smoking, and have a 1/2 hour every day of his lunch. Worked at Livermore labs back then, so I can promise that the steel alloy that slide and frame were made from was off the absolute best...he never told me what exactly the frame was made from, but it wouldn't rust and wasn't magnetic (but seemed too heavy to be Ti.).

He kept a stash of the old Speer 60gr. Spitzers (looked like the little 40gr. Hornet bullets...kind of s stubby pencil point) that wre his absolute favorite in the .256. Doubt you'll find them easy, but from what I'd seen him do with them, might be worth looking for.

Before he passed away, got him to try re-swaging the little 35gr. Hornay JHP, bumping them from .251" to .258". Weren't worth a hoot for any distance, but up close on small critters, it was kind of amazing. Have seen it before with other calibers using way-too-fragile bullets (and reswaging them didn't make them stronger), but if you shot a ground squirrel inside of 25yards, would often shoot splatter BACK AT YOU.

Had some slightly over sized copper rod (probably metric at about .264") and that Marlin 62. Had read Keith's opinion of the .220 swift and bullets that don't expand. Tried a little experiment myself. Lathed out some 40gr. bullets, with little driving bands (kind of like the old Nosler Zippedo bullets) from solid copper. Mighty accurate, but even going as fast as i could drive them, critters hit by them just kind of minded their own bussiness for a few seconds, then fell over dead. Little puckered holes.

Lathed a second batch, made them long-point spitzers. These still shot well, but had the tendecny to get sideways after a very shot travel though meat....and these killed like you hit the critter with a buzz saw as the buolets tumbled through them after about 2" of nose-on travel.

(.220 Swift trials were about the same...if I made the bullets long-body/short nose, they'd just zing on through...make them long nose/short body, and they go ares-over-tea-kettle inside the critter and kill like a Star Trec phaser.)

What ever a .25/20 can do, the .256 Win Mag can do it better, and hit harder.

Budd

I did a piece on it for "Varmint Hunter" magazine. It's also on my website at
www.reloadingroom.com

I truly enjoyed the little round, and still wish I had a carbine-length barrel for my Contender in 256. I had a form die set, but did almost as well by running 357 Mag cases into the SEATER die first, using it as an intermediate form die, and then sizing as normal. I did polish the seater die's neck area first, which helped a lot.